Look back at a piece of work you have
produced so far, including any notes and blog entries that went with it (OCA
Digital film, pp.31). I chose the last exercise: An objective POV:
What you set out to achieve:
Basically I followed a scenario of the
exercise to film a short sequence of an alcoholic in the objective POV. I
wanted to tell the story in short time with using some new camera angles which
I had learnt about. My concerns were about the right use of the angles.
How you can identify what you achieved:
Certainly feedbacks are the main tool for recognizing
if an intention was fulfilled. It is important to have more feedback resources,
for now my resources are - fellow students, family and my brother. The feedbacks tell me how
other people see the result.
Whether you achieved it:
It is really hard question, I think it
depends on our skills which are able to judge our work. When I see my drawing
from my high school I cannot believe that I thought it is great piece of art (how
arrogant I was :-)). I am always
dissatisfied with my work so I work on until a balance between satisfied/dissatisfied will emerge. In that moment I have a piece for a moment. I think our satisfaction with
a project is more relevant than the feedbacks. Clearly the quality of project =
skills which we learnt.
What you learned from this:
Surely the filmmaking is not only about shooting
pictures. There is a scenario step which tells the story by letters followed by a
storyboard where the story is telling by frame pictures with annotations what
happens in every frame (angle/move of camera, what the talent should do etc.).
When I compared the objective POV exercise with the previous exercise subjective POV I have agreed with Stuart note about that there are too many things on screen. It reminds me that less
things means better focus for him on main thing in a story. The
light conditions must be taken in mind. I was changing some shots for the final
sequence and I saw the differences in saturation and coloring. The differences
were really huge and I had problems to correct them by the software. I have no
skills how to set up a camera to get approximately same results for shots in different
conditions or better say how to measure it or something like this. I think the
lightning will be an area where I need to learn a lot. About the
storyboard: it is very helpful tool which helped me to avoid to shooting shots
from variety angles to confide that cutting step connect and build the story as
I have been always doing in this style.
Is better to struggle and improve your
weaker areas or should you cut your losses and focus your strengths?
Good question. How we know what strengths and
weaknesses we have? We can compare ourselves with others, we can get feedback
from educated persons whose can give a direction in which we can be good. So I
think we should struggle and improve mainly our strengths or better say we
should focus in area where we are strong. I think about the film, we can be
better in writing a story than shooting frames for example so it is logical
that we should improve our skills in writing, but it depends on every person and
it is personal decision what we want to do. Everybody can get high skills and
filmmaking is a craft which we can learn and be successful in it but there is an aspect
of an effort which we are willing to put there. Of course without talent we hardly reach the top place of the ladder. So
I think our strengths are indicators/arrows which tell us direction of our path
and we should focus on it, if there is a weakness which is an obstacle on
this way we should improve it, learn it or we can have another person who is
strong in it within a networking/team which we are communicate /working.
How can you ever really know what your
strengths and weaknesses are?
Definitely we need a response from society,
critics, discussions with our tutor. We need to share our skills with others.
We need a critical judgment. We also need to build inner measurement to judge
our work personally, we need to find a balance between not to be too much
dissatisfied because after we do not nothing and be aware not to be too much
satisfied because we can produce something without value.
How do you know what you need to know if
you don't know what it is yet?
Strange question. What is it behind it? I
think it is a comparison. When I see my first sequence I consciously know that
there is something missing if I compare it to the professional sequence. My
mind tells that there is something wrong, but not always tells me what it is? Where you
get the information what it is? I always try change something. I do a research, trials how to
improve something and get new information, skills, techniques etc.. I like and
do photomontage, I bought many books about Photomontage but especially one is
the most worth. The author has webpage where he every Friday make comments on
works which were put there. Without his feedbacks I am sure I could not achieve any progress. Again, when I see my first
photomontage, it is simple without skills which I have now after 3 years
attending the Friday challenges. Of course a serendipities are great resources of new information.
Who can you ask or where can you find out?
Definitely tutor is in first instance.
Second are fellow student. Third should be other people involved in same area
(networking, web forums). The family but there is question how their view is
critical.
How do you know if you have improved? When
is it time to move on?
I think my inner feeling tells me it - when I am satisfied with the work. When it is? I think when I wholly understand
what I am doing and if this is right. My opinion: if we are able to brake rules we know how the rules work.
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